The sun had sunk into the horizon, much like Sunset’s hopes for the night. She hoped she could do some stargazing that night and finish her Astronomy assignment. Sure it wasn’t due until after the holidays, but it wasn’t as if there was anything she wished to do instead. Or rather, there wasn’t anything she could—that is, even if they—
“Gah!”
Sunset Shimmer pushed her telescope away, making it spin a few times on its tripod before it slowly came to a stop with a grating metallic sound. Dumb telescope.
The little filly walked towards the balcony and looked down at the vibrant city of Canterlot, shining with thousands and thousands of multicolored lights. The Hearth's Warming spirit was in full swing, with everypony going on making arrangements for the coming celebration.
Blegh.
Looking up, Sunset stared into the sky, squinting to identify a few stars. Canterlot already had a bit of a light pollution issue, and the addition of festive lights was of little help. Now she couldn’t do her astrology homework and had to think of something else to distract herself.
She turned a bit. Eyeing the bundle of papers hastily thrown into her bin, she couldn’t help but feel… odd. It was hard to put into words, and the longer she tried, the worse she felt, so she rather not think about that anymore.
With a huff, she faced her telescope once more and was about to make it spin again—maybe disassembling it and greasing it would kill a few hours—when she heard a slow and gentle knock on the door.
“Who is it?” she asked, an uncharacteristic dejected edge seeping into her voice, much to her own surprise. Quickly, she added an emphatic, “I’m busy!”
Much better.
“Sunset?”
She gasped when Princess Celestia’s voice reached her. “Princess!”
All previous thoughts went up in smoke as she ran to the door. In a blink, she grabbed the knob with her magic and pulled.
Regal as ever, tall as ever, warm as ever, Princess Celestia stood in front of her with a smile she was quick to reciprocate.
“Good evening, Sunset Shimmer.”
Sunset did a quick bow before jumping and crossing necks with the alicorn. The Princess was so soft… being so huggable had to be one of the best parts of being an alicorn.
“I… I didn’t expect to see you today,” Sunset said, taking the chance to hold Princess Celestia for a little bit longer.
“I decided to make time,” the Princess replied, gently petting her back.
Letting go, Sunset stepped aside and motioned for Princess Celestia to come in. “Thank you…” she whispered as her smile got even wider.
In a hurry, Sunset tried to organise her desk, clearing it of errant notes and unshelved books. She took the opportunity to cram her bin and bury that accursed bundle of papers even deeper.
“This is sudden, so I don’t have anything to offer…” she trailed off, but began speaking excitedly as a few memories resurfaced. “Oh! But I still have that tin of cookies you gave me the other day. We can eat those!”
She opened a drawer and pulled the half eaten tin of cookies, but her enthusiasm faded when she saw Princess Celestia giving her a smile. Closed eyes and small smile. That was not one of her happy smiles.
Sunset stopped. The tin floating between them. “Princess?”
“How is school, Sunset Shimmer?”
The question had the Princess’s usual warmth, but it made Sunset’s blood run cold all the same. She felt her magic fading as the alicorn’s magic took the tin and brought it towards her.
“I believe I gave you this so you could take it to the Hearth’s Warming party your class was throwing yesterday.”
Shoot.
Despite the apparent nonchalance of her observation, the Princess’s words had that edge Sunset Shimmer had come to notice she used in court, whenever she wanted to make a point and not outright state it. And now it was aimed straight at her.
“I… I…” Sunset started, but she came up short of what to say. “I didn’t go.”
Princess Celestia set the tin on the desk and focused her attention on Sunset. “Why is that, my dear student?”
Sunset had to fight the urge to grimace. She hated when ponies did that obvious question thing to her, because it always made her feel like a foal. She was no longer one! Still, she could see why anypony would think of her as one, considering how she acted… It was their fault, anyway.
“Is it about the play?”
Whichever parts of Sunset body that weren’t cold, froze at that instant. How did she know already? Did somepony tell her? Had to be one of the other fillies… Bunch of tattletails. Why, she ought to—
The Princess’s eyes still regarded her with patience, not forcing an answer, but making it clear she was expecting one either way. It would do her no good trying to stall or feign ignorance. No excuse of justifications would please the Princess, so she may as well fess up.
“Y-yes… I, uh, I don’t want to be in it anymore.” Sunset averted her eyes. She didn’t want to see the disappointment in the Princess’s eyes.
“Oh… I thought you loved Hearth’s Warming Eve’s Pageant, Sunset.”
“That doesn’t mean I…! Uh…” Blink. She had almost raised her voice to the Princess… This wasn’t getting any better. “I like it. I do… but that doesn’t mean I want to, you know, be in it… It’s much better to watch. You don’t miss anything that way.”
And back came the excuses. It wasn’t even a good one, Sunset himself could hear the lack of conviction in her own voice.
“Is that so? Because I think I know a filly who was really looking forward to participating in the play.”
Sunset looked up only to be mortified at the sight of Princess Celestia holding the bundle of papers from her bin. When had she taken it? How did she know it was there in the first place? How many times could somepony’s blood run cold? There was no way that's healthy!
“Look at this script. It has so many annotations and highlights someone could mistake it for a reference book.” The Princess flipped the pages, stopping at the ones with several colors and adhesive notes. “This doesn’t seem like the actions of somepony who doesn’t want to be in the play.”
“W-well… I changed my mind.”
Princess Celestia lay the script on the desk, next to the unopened tin, and leaned forwards. All traces of anything that could be interpreted as accusatory were gone, leaving only warmth behind. Sunset hated that even more, because it made her want to snuggle up to her and spill her guts. It had to be some sort of weird alicorn emotion magic.
“I… I… I don’t get along with the other fillies and colts… A-and they don’t get along with me, so it all works perfect!”
Oh, she could taste the disappointment in Celestia’s sigh.
“Is that really how you feel, Sunset?”
A ‘yes’ almost escaped her lips, but the sight of Princess Celestia stopped her. She seemed almost hurt. Why? This was just a dumb play, who cared? Certainly not Sunset. Not anymore.
“Does it matter? They don’t want me in it and I don’t want to be in it. It’s a win win.”
Silence settled after that. Perhaps Princess Celestia wanted her to say something else, but as far as Sunset Shimmer was concerned, there was nothing more to talk about. Yup. Nothing all, it was all said and—
“Does it have anything to do with how your script highlights all the dialogue for Queen Platinum and Clover the Clever?”
Drat.
“Uh, that’s just, um… Hehehe?”
Princess Celestia stood up and walked towards her. Despite the carpet muffling most of the sound, the clopping of her hooves still resonated in the silent room. Sunset felt Celestia draping her wing over her. It was soft and warm, though the effect was lessened by the imposing figure of the Princess towering over her.
“You know, my dear student… There is not one pony who can take on the role of two. Not even a Princess.”
Sunset wrinkled her snout. She knew Princess Celestia was right… but that didn’t mean she had to admit it!
“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do, but I do wish you could give it an earnest try.” Princess Celestia squeezed Sunset a bit with her wing. It was nice. “But, if you would like a bit of friendly advice from one pony to another, it is easier to deal with regret over the things you did than for the things you didn’t do.”
Sunset looked up and saw Princess Celestia looking away from her with a forlorn expression.
“Princess?”
Princess Celestia shook her head. “Don’t mind me, Sunset. I just want you to have a good time during the holidays, and I don’t think you should give up on the school play just like that.”
Give up… Give up. Sunset wasn’t a quitter. She wasn’t the type to give up… right?
“You seem to have a lot in your mind, Sunset,” Princess Celestia said, standing up. “I think I let you come to a decision on your own.”
“Uh… um…”
Rather than saying anything else, Princess Celestia looked back and gave her an encouraging smile before walking out of the room and closing the door behind her.
Sunset Shimmer was now alone once more.
Silence stretched as did time. She ventured a glance at the clock on her wall. It was still quite early. Her class probably hadn’t finished with rehearsals. She supposed she could go and see how they were faring without her. Maybe offer help if it was needed.
A few seconds passed before Sunset grabbed her scarf, and walked out of the room.
Sunset Shimmer walked down the school’s corridor, looking for whatever empty room her classmates were using to rehearse. She tried not to grip her script too tightly and wrinkle it more than it already was.
Finally, she heard murmurs coming from behind a nearby door and hurried towards it. As she approached it, however, many thoughts came to her mind, the main of which was what she should say. Apologise? She supposed she should, but at the same time—
“Whew, that went well.”
“This is going to be the best pageant ever!”
Sunset stopped.
“Yeah, good think Shimmer’s not here anymore.”
“Don’t say that, Back Stage!”
“Hey, you know I’m right!”
She took a few deep breaths, though they did little to ease her boiling anger.
“Yeah, let Miss Special be special somewhere else.”
“Ha! Don’t let her hear you, she’ll want to be called that for real.”
With grinding teeth, Sunset rose a hoof to the doorknob, but stopped short of grabbing it.
“Oh, shut it. Who cares about her anyway?”
“Yeah, let’s keep going!”
She lowered her hoof. It was not worth it. They were not worth it. Celestia may have meant well, but she was too well-meaning. Some ponies simply weren’t worth the effort.
The fillies and colts laughed as they started rehearsing once more.
With a shake of her head, Sunset turned around, and walked away.
She’d rather be anywhere else.
